This may be a bit long-winded and rambling but I hope you stick with me as there are a number of important points to discuss.  UEFA recently released a publication entitled "Safeguarding The Heritage And Future Of Team Sport In Europe", which outlines UEFA's stance on principles of good governance, player agents and home-grown players. Click to continue reading...

An emotional return to the pitch for Roberto Baggio, Roberto Donadoni, Franco Baresi and many of the other superstars from the Milan and Fiorentina squads of the late-80's & early-90's in a charity match for Stefano Borgonovo. Stefano is another star felled by the worrying trend of Italian football players struck down by ALS (Lou [. Click to continue reading...

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Start with his motile, princessy, yielding and absolute face, which is never only itself, but always itself smiling, itself sulking, itself exulting, itself wincing, itself coming apart in some goofy expression of praise. Look at the strange lacquer of serenity that shines on him, that mutes his nervous vitality and creates the odd illusion that everything [. Click to continue reading...

Much of the press will go to Milan (this is the fourth story on the ESPN front page, not Soccernet) & the British clubs, but the more intriguing matchups are to be found elsewhere, and none has more potential than Group C. Sevilla made the leap last year to the Champions League, but they're back on [. Click to continue reading...

AC Milan will continue their bid for a first UEFA Cup triumph against SC Heerenveen, SC Braga, debutants Portsmouth FC and VfL Wolfsburg after the group stage draw was made in Nyon on Tuesday. Matches begin on 23 October and continue on 6 and 27 November, then 3/4 and 17/18 December with each club in action [. Click to continue reading...

Group A
Schalke
Paris Saint Germain
Manchester City
Racing Santander
FC Twente

Group B
Benfica
Olympiakos
Galatasaray
Hertha Berlin
Metalist Kharkiv

Group C
Sevilla
Stuttgart
Sampdoria
Partizan Belgrade
Standard Liege

Group D
Tottenham
Spartak Moscow
Udinese
Dinamo Zagreb
NEC Nijmegen

Group E
AC Milan
Heerenveen
Braga
Portsmouth
Wolfsburg

Group F
Hamburg
Ajax
Slavia Prague
Aston Villa
MSK Zilina

Group G
Valencia
Club Brugge
Rosenborg
FC Copenhagen
Saint-Etienne

Group H
CSKA Moscow
Deportivo La Coruna
Feyenoord
Nancy
Lech Poznan

Each team plays two matches at home and two away, with the top three teams from each group qualifying for the last 32.

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Barcelona are back, Ibrahimovic has his cake, Joe Kinnear breaks the press conference swearing record and Tottenham sink to the bottom of the Premier League. All of these stories feature in this week's the good, the bad and the ugly. Click on the links for more information about them below. Good Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an amazing goal [. Click to continue reading...

UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage today and some fascinating pairings emerged. Both Martin Jol and Steve McClaren will take their new clubs back to England as FC Twente will face Manchester City and Jol's Hamburg will take on Aston Villa. This year's groups are looking really tough and the field contains [. Click to continue reading...

The UEFA Cup draw has thrown up some mouthwatering ties for the English clubs involved. Top of the pile is Portsmouth, who have been drawn in the same group as AC Milan. Not to be outdone, Aston Villa are up against Ajax and Martin Jol's Hamburg, while Manchester City will take on Schteeve McClaren'sh FC [. Click to continue reading...

At the end of the 6th Giornata we still saw surprises. Inter is top of the table, but they share a place with Lazio and Udinese, two squads who have been impressing in this start of the season. Both clubs are putting in good performances and don't look like calming down any time soon. Inter beat Bologna (with a splendid goal from Ibrahimovic), while Lazio needed a late equalizer from Simone Inzaghi (his first goal in Serie A in 4 years) to draw with Lecce.

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Good form comes and goes at AC Milan lately. One week, the Rossoneri get beaten by teams like Bologna and Genoa. Later, they rebound nicely with a whopping 4-1 against Lazio and derby win over Inter Milan. Then later still, we get back to abysmal displays against modest teams, such as Sunday's 0-0 draw vs. Click to continue reading...

I, like many of you, keep track of what ex-Gunners are doing after their departure. Mathieu and Philippe are fresh of that and I do follow the Italian Serie A and their teams pretty closely. The latest on the two A.C. Milan stars are not good for those who still "love" these them. The Frenchman, [... Click to continue reading...

One team short. Serie A's chance to get a "perfect quartet" into the UEFA Cup GS round will have to wait another year. Indeed, three of Italy's four UEFA Cup contenders are through to the group stage as AC Milan, Sampdoria and Udinese all won their first-round ties. Udinese needed a penalty shoot-out to thwart [. Click to continue reading...

4 seeds are the new 3 seeds; or, Transylvanians, Cypriots & Belarusians are legit. BATE were very fortunate to be eying a blonde Austrian rather than a turban-sporting Italian in net, but they were never predicted to sneak a deserved point. Cluj proved their Roma win was no fluke, even if they used a vastly different [. Click to continue reading...

Italian agent Enzo Bronzetti has revealed that AC Milan almost ditched their efforts to sign Ronaldinho to pursue Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor. Milan were known to be interested in the Togolese striker but were put off by the Gunners' hefty £35million asking price. But according to Bronzetti, the San Siro giants were close to making a big offer [. Click to continue reading...

Dunga, fairly or not, is feeling the heat for the Selecao's performances the last couple of matches.  He decided to make some changes for the next two qualifiers.  The most obvious move was replacing Ronaldinho for Kaka.  The two AC Milan playmakers seem to be meshing well after their performance in the Rossoneri's 1-0 win [. Click to continue reading...

Mladen Kristajic (Schalke) and Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke) reenact the infamous spitting incident between Frank Rijkaard (then AC Milan) and Rudi Völler (then AS Roma) during the World Cup 1990 Round of 16 clash between Germany and the Netherlands. The remake has the splashier special effects, but Mladen Kristajic is a poor mans Frank Rijkaard and [. Click to continue reading...

There's been some debate about exactly how offside works, mostly surrounding Ronaldinho's goal for Milan against Inter. Luckily John Cleese recorded the above explanation of the offside rule for 2006 tv show "The Art of Football". So that clears that up then. [via Soccer Training Info] Click to continue reading...

When looking at the schedule of the 5th Giornata, all eyes had to be on Milan-Inter. The Derby was important not only for fans of those teams but for fans of other teams, as everyone had to hope Inter were stopped. And they were stopped, as the Rossoneri prevailed with a thunderous header from Ronaldinho, who scored his first goal in a Milan jersey.

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Follow the Uefa Champions league- Highlights and live - at footiedb.com! Wednesday at 20.45 Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today! LIVESTREAM ! Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today! Click to continue reading...

Things could not have been worse for Ronaldinho coming into the latest edition of the Derby Della Madonnina.  He was still not at the level that people though he could be at, but then the big stab in his heart came midweek. Brazil coach Dunga left the AC Milan midfielder out of his 23-man callup for [. Click to continue reading...

Ronaldinho shines as AC Milan take the Milan Derby 1 - 0. Match Highlights Match Day Five Results Saturday Sept. 27 Sampdoria 0 - 0 Juventus Fiorentina 1 - 0 Genoa   Sunday Sept. 28  AS Roma 2 - 0 Atalanta Bologna 0 - 1 Napoli Catania 1 - 0 Chievo Lecce 2 - 0 Cagliari Palermo 1 - 0 Reggina Torino 1 - 3 Lazio Udinese 2 - [. Click to continue reading...

The Brazilian control the run of play leading up the goal then buried a header in the 36th minute to give A.C. Milan the 1-0 win.

Too bad for Mourinho. But it was good to see a flash of brilliance from Ronaldinho again... Click to continue reading...

1. Everton - Liverpool. And yet, no amount of having a soccer blog could keep me from writing email throughout this tedious chore of a match. 2. Espanyol - Barcelona. Madness, violence, confusion, controversy: this was the match of the season for every one of soccer's wicked shadow synonyms. After giving up a goal on a [. Click to continue reading...

That is an overstatement obviously, but Italian football does seem to be hotbed of naive footballers with some extreme political views. I am not closely enough involved in Italian football to be able to prescribe a solution, but I can certainly detect a problem. AC Milan keeper Christian Abbiati is the latest player to declare himself [. Click to continue reading...

Mourinho holds his tongue after Milan show talk is cheap.



Alberto Gilardino came up with one of the goals of the weekend to help Fiorentina beat Genoa 1-0 on Saturday. He now has three Serie A goals in five games, as well as a Champions League brace against Lyon. Click to continue reading...

Or should I say... R80? Either way ladies & gentlemen, Ronaldinho could not have picked a better day to score the first Serie A goal of his AC Milan career. With the first edition of 2008-09's "Derby della Madonnina", the Rossoneri have struck a big blow to Inter and José Mourinho's big "confidence plan". Click to continue reading...

A Ronny goal wins the Milan Derby, Lazio go top, Fiorentina rebound to beat Genoa and Juventus and Sampdoria draw...

Roundup

R. Mehdi's Reports

Mourinho blasts petty Italian press
"You're not in love with football as I thought you would be. All I can see is that everyone is obsessed with little things and not the things that count. Click to continue reading...

One of Silvio Berlusconi's players at AC Milan has declared he is a fascist. Christian Abbiati, 31, an Italian international, said: "I am not ashamed to proclaim my political beliefs. I share [the] ideals of fascism, such as the fatherland and the values of the Catholic religion."


Oh dear. Click to continue reading...

AC Milan v/s Inter Milan.Mourinho's unbeaten run as Inter Milan manager came to an end when Kaka beat the offside trap on the right to pick up a long pass from Ronaldinho. He jogged it down to the right of the penalty area and then scooped it perfectly back to Ronaldinho to head home from 10 metres out.

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Milano derbisinde favori İnter olmasına rağmen, maçta Milan'ın evsahibi olması maç öncesi dengeyi sağlıyordu. Milan Ronaldinho'nun golüyle Mourinholu İnter'i yendi. Ronaldinho ve derbi deyince akla Madrid'de Barselona'nın şov yaparak kazandığı maçta, Madrid tribünlerinin Ronaldinho'yu alkışlamak zorunda kaldığı maç geliyor. Click to continue reading...

Oh, the ups and downs of being Ronaldinho. The toothy legend was recently left out of the Brazil squad by Dunga, and it wasn't clear whether he's start the Milan derby or not. But not only did he start, he went and won the game with an absolutely glorious header. The header is impressive enough - [.. Click to continue reading...

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Grande MILAN!
Originally uploaded by Yep? En un clásico plagado de figuras mundiales, el Milan gano, pero no de forma contundente, de hecho de no ser por el arbitro, quien expulso y amonesto a jugadores del Inter de forma rigorista y de que no le marco un penal al Inter ya para finalizar ; el juego pudo dar otro giro. Click to continue reading...